In the summer of 2016, Orlando Bloom unknowingly etched himself into internet legend when his "big black box" became the envy of men everywhere.
Yes, the actor made headlines when he was photographed paddleboarding completely nude while on vacation with then-girlfriend Katy Perry in Sardinia, Italy.
Nearly a decade later, the images — showing the Lord of the Rings star in the buff behind a bikini-clad Perry, his modesty protected by a large black rectangle censor — remain one of the most viral celebrity photo moments of the modern era.
Bloom, now 47, candidly reflected on the bizarre chapter of his life, and he's doing so with a mix of humility and humor.
"Are We Going to Talk About My Penis?"
Speaking to Elle UK in 2017, Bloom recalled how the incident took him by complete surprise. “Yes, it was extremely surprising,” he said. “I wouldn’t have put myself in that position if I’d thought it would happen.”
“We’d been completely alone for five days. Nothing around us. There was no way anyone could get anything,” he explained. “So I had a moment of feeling free.”
Despite decades of being trailed by paparazzi, Bloom admitted he misread the moment: “I’ve been photographed a million times in a million ways. I have a good radar... But clearly, not good enough.”
When the interviewer noted the likely media uproar had it been a female celebrity photographed nude, Bloom responded: “I didn’t take it that deep, darlin’. What can I tell you? Note to self: you’re never free. Ha!”
Katy Perry: “He Tried to Get Me to Strip and I Was Like, ‘Nah’”
Perry - who is now once again making headlines amid the couple's rumored "split" - offered her own insights into the incident during a 2020 appearance on The Howard Stern Show.
“Well, he tried to get me there [naked] and I was like, ‘Nah,’” Perry said. “In the back of my mind I'm like, I am Jim Carrey in The Truman Show a little bit. Maybe there would be a chance [of being photographed]. I'm a little bit more of the pragmatic one in the partnership.”
Perry explained that nudity felt commonplace during their trip. “It was Europe, and we'd had a pretty chill time for a week, everyone was naked. It was Europe, it was Italy! I think he wanted to fit in with the locals. It was the end of the trip.”
Going Viral — And Laughing Through It
In the days leading up to the infamous photos, Bloom had been playfully bragging about online stats related to his blockbuster roles.
“Days before, he was talking about Twitter and some statistics about Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings, you know, in good fun,” Perry recalled. “I was like, eye roll, eye roll, eye roll.”
Then, seemingly overnight, Bloom became the number one trend online—not for a film release, but for what the camera captured in Sardinia.
“Be careful what you wish for, eh Bloom?” Perry joked.
Bloom later addressed the, shall we say, optical impression created by the paparazzi shots. Appearing on The Howard Stern Show, he explained: “Things are expanded on cameras with a big optical lens. It is an optical illusion… It is really not that big.”
He recalled receiving a heads-up from his publicist: “The publicist called to say, ‘That is not the worst of it. First of all, there were pictures with a block over it.’ And you make some jokes like: ‘Have you got a black box big enough to cover it?’”
“But then you suddenly realise somebody is going to uncover the black box because they are going to be paid enough. It's a triple whammy—photos, black box, then no black box.”
Relationship Growth and Staying Amicable
Despite the online whirlwind, Bloom and Perry weathered the storm — and then some. The couple briefly split in 2017, before reuniting later that year. They got engaged on Valentine’s Day in 2019 and welcomed their daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, in August 2020.
In an interview, Perry revealed the temporary separation allowed both of them to grow individually, ultimately strengthening their bond.
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Even after their brief split, Bloom emphasized the importance of maintaining maturity in public relationships. “We’re friends. It’s good. We’re all grown-up,” he told the press. “She happens to be someone who is very visible, but I don’t think anybody cares what I’m up to. Nor should they. It’s between us. It’s better to set an example for kids and show that [break-ups] don’t have to be about hate.”
However, as previously mentioned, a source tells Us Weekly that Bloom and "Perry have split but are amicable", with their separation being described as “a long time coming".